Spiringsteen

[bombfrog]

No interaction with the crowd ??? Did you see the same set as everyone else ?? He spent a load of time with the people in the pit - why do you think they put the steps up and had the overturned flight cases by the barrier ?

And if he spent 2 or 3 minutes chatting about nothing between songs people would be moaning about that as well - how many songs exactly did he play ?

[zero000]

I touched his Guitar

Phenomenal performance

[bombfrog]

the people moaning didnt actually see him but seemed to be watching the wonder stuff

[StevieF]

I thought he was great. Didn't quite get the whole crowd together like Blur, which isn't really a huge surprise as they have more songs that the audience will already know. But everyone around me seemed to be enjoying themselves.

[ml1dch]

To be fair to the critics, the reviews are all over the place. There were two in the Guardian - one a five star - and the other from a miserable hack (meaning a hack who was miserable!). Mojo and BBC loved it. NME said it was hard going. Real marmite stuff then.

Edited June 29, 2009 by ml1dch

[future_shock]

I watched the whole set and I was very underwhelmed by it if I'm honest. I was really looking forward to it as well. I can imagine though if you were a hardcore fan it was pretty amazing.

Not convinced by the biggest crowd statement, certainly not by the end of the set anyways.

[gregor1984]

I'm biased as a big Springsteen fan, but I thought it was utterly incredible. I was right down the front and it was bouncing.

I'm not entirely sure what the people who complained he didn't "play enough hits" wanted. Born in the USA? It's well known he doesn't play it live (certainly never in its original arrangement) and it's a pretty average song anyway.

I'm gonna ebay a ticket for the Glasgow gig. Told myself I wasn't going to cos it's quite far to go from Liverpool and it'll cost me a bit in travel and digs, but I can't help myself.

[benissright]

Went with a group of 21 year olds. The only headliner all 7 of us saw. 4 thought it was absolutely incredible, 3 thought it was tosh. Thats what you get with Springsteen.

The NME review lost me the moment it said genuine fans dont call him the boss....when the nickname was started by the rest of the band! Jesus...talk about your shoddy reporting. Bruce acepted the Boss as a nickname years ago.

Personally. I loved it. He did everything i thought he would. Springsteen (like many of the musicians at the festival) is an artist, not a puppet. He doesnt HAVE to do anything. Why should he have to dumb down his set because he is playing a festival? Why not allow all those people who normally wouldnt see a Springsteen show, see a Springsteen show? The shows that have made him the biggest live act in the world. He was also 10x better than he was at Emirates last year, though maybe thats because i saw a lot of other 21 year oldd celebrating the 'dad rock' that we supposedly hate...

Oh and i saw him at gaslight. Can anyone answer me why that is not more widely reported? Its like it didnt happen! A headliner guesting in the John Peel tent to play to a demographic that largely despises his music? And going down an absolute storm. Oh yeah, its because everyone at radio 1 was salivating over Dizzee Rascal who we've only seen like at every festival this year /rant

[TheBoyInTheBubble]

I'm biased as a big Springsteen fan, but I thought it was utterly incredible. I was right down the front and it was bouncing.

I'm not entirely sure what the people who complained he didn't "play enough hits" wanted. Born in the USA? It's well known he doesn't play it live (certainly never in its original arrangement) and it's a pretty average song anyway.

I'm gonna ebay a ticket for the Glasgow gig. Told myself I wasn't going to cos it's quite far to go from Liverpool and it'll cost me a bit in travel and digs, but I can't help myself.

[gregor1984]

It's not necessarily well-known that he doesn't perform it or that he doesn't perform it in the original manner. As I've stated in another Springsteen thread, whilst the set was good and he is talented, he has never picked up on how you need to structure a set at a festival because he's never played them before (and quite probably won't again after this summer as he'll have his legions of fans buying tickets for stadiums across the globe). A top of the range, special, uber-popular song is needed near to the start of a festival set to just get everybody dancing/singing. If you're attempting to be a singalong headliner, which is what Springsteen was trying, then you need to create a party atmosphere most of all.

[StevieF]

It's not necessarily well-known that he doesn't perform it or that he doesn't perform it in the original manner. As I've stated in another Springsteen thread, whilst the set was good and he is talented, he has never picked up on how you need to structure a set at a festival because he's never played them before (and quite probably won't again after this summer as he'll have his legions of fans buying tickets for stadiums across the globe). A top of the range, special, uber-popular song is needed near to the start of a festival set to just get everybody dancing/singing. If you're attempting to be a singalong headliner, which is what Springsteen was trying, then you need to create a party atmosphere most of all.

[solarfall]

I think a lot of his songs sound very much the same. It was a good set, though!

The version of The Ghost Of Tom Joad was, simply, incredible. Nils is such a good guitarist

Edited June 29, 2009 by solarfall

[Mardy]

Hmmm, i went along, cos of my mate who's a hige fan, and partly out of curiosity

To summarise, the things Iliked about springsteen before the set, I now like even more, and the things I didn't like, I dislike even more

The preachery shit is tiresome, asd are all the fake endings and dragging the songs out for 2 minutes more than they needed. am I the only person who was losing the will to live during the interminable 'Outlaw Pete'?

[TheBoyInTheBubble]

Would it have really made a massive difference though? Playing one song that he didn't? I very much doubt that would have changed anyone's opinion from him being "crap" to "good".

Personally, I was pleased he didn't play Born... as I don't really rate it and I'd much rather he played something like The Ghost of Tom Joad or This Promised Land with as much verve and passion as he did, rather than going through the motions with a song he doesn't like playing.

I'd have loved to hear Atlantic City, Growin' Up, Jungleland and I'm On Fire, but I didn't get them. For a man with such an enormous back catalouge though, he can't play everything. What he did play was superb, IMO obviously.

[StevieF]

It wouldn't have made a difference playing that particular one song at the very end of the gig, no; but it could have made a big difference to the people who were indifferent if there had been something very obvious near to the start of the gig.

[Kyelo]

I am one of those people who thought he was dull before but went to see him out of curiosity. People on here stating 'the best live act in the world' etc stayed for about 30 minutes and was totally bored. I know about a dozen people who went to see him, or at least some of him, and literally none of them liked him. The majority of them left to see other things.

I then walked off and watched some random african band singing in a foreign language, playing intruments I have never seen and by f*ck it was good! Well better than the 'Boss'.

I was in a similar situation with Neil Young, really not my thing, but I found him pretty decent and I didn't know much of his stuff. Sat through his whole set and was pleasantly suprised! Not the best because it's just not me, but made me have a wee jig!

[DaveMac]

Springsteen's, set was the highlight of my 2009 festival.

'The Ghost of Tom Joad' was worth the ticket price alone.

Full power set, lots of commitment and great music from Bruce and the legendary E Street Band.

No need for elaborate stage lighting etc just great high octane music entertainment.

For a Glastonbury headliner it's 10/10 for me! Other people can have their opinions but for me that was the real deal when it comes to Glasto entertainment.

Sorry some of you other guys didn't like the Springsteen set but there were a lot of other talented artists playing different stages around the site at the same time. e.g. Wonderstuff who normally I would have jump at the chance to go and see.

Why stay and watch a long set of someone you don't like ? Makes no sense to me

[Wooderson]

I thought it was fairly dull to be honest.

Played absolutely loads of stuff that only his fans would know and absolutely no interaction with the crowd. He just got to the end of each song, shouted "1,2,3,4" and then launched straight into the next one.

[exStudentBlue]

Yep. He fuc.ked it up. Gig I saw last year was WAY better.

Shakey and Blur (to name but two) were better than Bruce.

[exStudentBlue]

Oh and for the record, I'm a big fan so would be bound to say that ...!

But our group included 7 other people in their 20s like me who saw him and thought it was awesome. Although I heard other people complaining about it the next day, so I think (as someone else has said in this thread) that it was a bit 'marmite'. But it's all good ...

[Originalshez]

Thought it was fabulous, although I think he under-represented the Born To Run album. Barring USA, it's his most sold album and I think something like 10th Ave at the start would have gone down well. The other big Springsteen fan in our group summed it up - 'performance was stunning, but the setlist wasn't right for a festival'

[IUBOSSFAN]

Delete since I haven't mastered linking...

Edited June 30, 2009 by IUBOSSFAN

[Wooderson]

Hmmm ... I've changed my mind on this. I went along expecting him to do a Macca-esque set of crowd-pleasing nostalgia, and when in the end we 'only' got The River / Dancing / Born to Run / Glory Days / Thunder Road, I thought he might have blown it.

[StevieF]

Im a recent enough fan of his and have less than zero interest in fist pumping Bruce.

On the night he made selfish choices. A whole new audience was there to be won over. In reading this forum and elsewhere its seems clear to me that people was underwhelmed by what he played.

[Wooderson]

I shouldn't comment since I wasn't there.But some of the negative comments in this thread are pretty hilarious,especially when people say they were "looking forward to it" and were disappointed with the results...